Why the Star Stands Still (Gives Light Series) by Rose Christo Read Free Book Online

told me.  He sat heavily on the rocking chair that stood next to the kitchen doorway.  "Uncle Gabe just said so."
     
    I tilted my head.  "Is there a reason we're not happy about that?"
     
    "Grandma Gives Light?  She's insane.  She's like a shrieking, two-headed harpy."
     
    "The one who eats raw elk?"
     
    "Yeah, that one.  Heads up, she only speaks Shoshone."
     
    "Oh, that's okay."
     
    Rafael groaned.  "It's not okay," he said.  "I was scared stiff of her when I was a kid.  Mary always said--"
     
    I think his sister Mary has psychic powers.  I really do.  She walked in on us just then and whistled--followed closely by her longtime girlfriend, a Navajo woman named Kaya.
     
    "Did you hear?" Mary said.  She had the air about her of a gleeful demon.  "Grandma Gives Light's coming over!  Raffy, remember that time she poured cold water in your ears because you ate candy before dinner?"
     
    Rafael moaned miserably.
     
    "Hi, Kaya," I said politely.
     
    "Hello, Skylar."  Man, that woman is chic.  She could make an apron look like a fashion statement.  "When are you visiting Three Suns?"
     
    "November, hopefully."
     
    "Yaadi la," Kaya said with disapproval.  "Our reservations are so close to one another.  There's no excuse."
     
    " Cold water , Kaya!" Mary went on.  Clearly she was ecstatic about this arrangement.  "And she told off a state trooper once when she was speeding--"
     
    "Did she really?"
     
    "Yeah, but she only speaks Shoshone, like hell he knew what she was saying--"
     
    "Ah, Shoshone."
     
    "Masukwih!  Yuhupippuh!"
     
    "Please," I said, "make yourselves at home."
     
    "Don't mind if I do," Mary said.  She shoved Rafael off of his rocking chair and took his place.
     
    "Hey!"
     
    Siblings are siblings, I guess.  It doesn't matter how old they are.  Put them in the same room and they revert to two-year-olds.
     
    Mary and Kaya stuck around for lunch.  Kaya told us about her latest forays in the anthropology department at Dine University while Mary pretended to snore.  It was all about the music for Mary; telling her that no one was interested in signing a Native American metal band wouldn't change her mind.
     
    "They're kind of like us," Rafael said when they had left.
     
    I laughed, bewildered.  "What the heck do you mean?"
     
    "Kaya's nice and smart and Mary's a dumbass."
     
    "Don't talk about yourself that way, Rafael," I chided.
     
    "I meant you were the dumbass, dumbass."
     
    I checked my watch.  I loaded our dishes in the wash basin for later.  Rafael tensed immediately.
     
    "It's time already?" he asked.
     
    I smiled, hoping to encourage him.  "It's fine," I said.  "Just relax.  It's going to be fine."
     
    He mumbled something that sounded oddly like "Grandma."
     
    Rafael and I left the house together, my hand on his back, and walked across the trodden dirt path.  I could hear William Has Two Enemies' children playing among the alder trees.  Rafael drew a deep breath and I wrapped my hand around his.
     
    We walked out to the communal firepit.  Zeke was already waiting for us there--along with a scruffy-looking little girl.
     
    It's weird how nervous I suddenly felt.  Usually I leave the nerves up to Rafael.  But this little girl--I don't know.  She may as well have been the ambassador to the UN, for all that I was suddenly terrified of her.  Her hair was long, brown, and straight, her curly little snub nose dusted with freckles.  Her jeans looked two sizes too big for her and her shirt said, "Stop Looking at Me."  I guessed the backpack on her back carried her only possessions.
     
    "Hey, morons," Zeke said.  "Okay?  This is Michaela."
     
    Rafael's mouth opened and closed like a witless fish.  I elbowed him and he jolted.
     
    I smiled at Michaela.  "I'm Skylar.  He's Rafael."
     
    "Weird," she said.
     
    Heaven help me, I thought, my nerves dissipating.  I could fall in love with this kid.
     
    "Ah, man, I've gotta head downtown," Zeke